2015 Calvin Awards: Best TV Show
By David Mumpower
February 9, 2015
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Yes, Game of Thrones is our choice for the Best Television Show of the Year. It has crushed the competition like The Mountain destroyed, well, that would be a spoiler. But yes, like that. The linchpin of HBO programming scored roughly as many points as the second and third place finishers in combination. The result was predictable, because our staff has jumped on the Game of Thrones bandwagon since the beginning. All three prior seasons had earned top five placement, and its 2014 score rivaled the 800-pound gorilla that was Breaking Bad right up until the final few votes.
The big question moving forward is not whether it will maintain popularity but instead whether Game of Thrones can match Breaking Bad’s three-victory pace. Given that the show is headed toward a finish that even the readers of George RR Martin’s masterwork have no way to predict, the continued struggles to claim and maintain the Iron Throne are a force to reckon with in this category for at least three more years.
This year’s results demonstrate how much our staff loves its HBO Go. Three of the top four vote-getters are HBO programs, and two of them are new productions. Second place goes to the least conventional of the bunch, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. After a terrific run as the stand-in host of The Daily Show, Oliver was offered the keys to the kingdom at HBO (not a Game of Thrones reference). The results have been inimitable.
Rather than compete on a nightly basis with his friends John Stewart and Stephen Colbert, the British satirist provided a different spin on weekly news and pop culture. His quick wit and genial nature combined with his willingness to attack institutions as standoffish as the FCC and Miss America has created a perfect storm of social justice via social media. As Stewart basks in the glory of being the most famous celebrated talk show host in America and Colbert prepares to replace the retiring David Letterman, Oliver has stuck with what he knows: how to make the topical hilarious while also maintaining a cutting point of view. Even if his hot streak doesn’t last, he is at least for this year the reigning king of the talk show realm.
A program currently in its sixth season earns its first appearance on our list, as The Good Wife debuts in the lofty position of third place. Many of our staff members have been watching for years now, but the series never enjoyed the widespread popularity needed to place in the top 10. That was all prior to Hitting the Fan, the epic season five episode that the show’s disciples proudly reference as The Good Wife’s Red Wedding. Basically every remaining episode of the fifth season was a home run, from the divorce of Alicia Florrick from her firm to the shocking death of a central cast member a few episodes later. On a weekly basis, The Good Wife delivers a perfect blend of legal philosophical debates and serial drama. If you have yet to catch up on this treasure, the start of season five represents the perfect opportunity to see what the fuss is about. I maintain that it is one of the greatest single seasons of television in the 2000s.
Another HBO series and an FX espionage thriller complete the top five. The hype around True Detective seemed understated prior to the release of the series starring Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey. Soon after its debut, however, the latter actor’s awards season candidacy gained momentum, eventually resulting in his winning the prestigious Best Actor award at The Oscars. As his reputation spiked, more people became transfixed by the twisted tale of a murder investigation in Louisiana. Suffice to say that if the polling in the category had been performed last March as season one ended, it might have won. The 10-month voting gap is the primary reason it “only” finished fourth.
The Americans is a brilliant take on the Cold War, and its constant machinations involve a pair of Russian operatives living and working in the United States. Leads Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys are both believable badasses who are forced to use every tool at their disposal to attain American government secrets. Suffice to say that their favorite asset is their sexuality, as the underlying theme of every episode seems to involve seduction. Yes, Russell and Rhys’ characters are masters of the honeypot, but they are great with a gun as well. Unfortunately, they also happen to live across the street from a FBI counterterrorism agent. A reckoning is coming in this regard, but the build-up is still the thing through the early stage of season three. For people under 50, the Cold War is something from a history book rather than a viable memory, so The Americans works as a sort of Mad Men for spies. If you want to catch up, pay special attention to the resolution of season two’s big mystery. The reveal is indescribably satisfying.
With such a dramatic shake-up at the top of the category, a couple of standing favorites fail to capitalize on the void created by the end of a few series last year. Brooklyn Nine-Nine debuted in ninth place last year and now inches up to sixth place. The broad but clever cop show comedy is undeniably the funniest sitcom of this variety since Barney Miller (Google it, kids!). Seventh goes to Archer, which is actually the FX animation staple’s lowest performance over the last four years. As much as our staff loved the premise of Archer Vice, the actual execution didn’t dazzle, Kenny Loggins episode excluded. Still, we unabashedly love the show to the point that several of us randomly scream, “OUTLAW COUNTRY!!!”
A fourth (!) HBO series and a pair of standing favorites comprise the rest of our selections for Best Television Show. After a couple of seasons of being a bridesmaid, Veep finally earned a spot in eighth place this year. I suspect the “Clovis” episode is what put Veep over the top. Justified drops out of the top five for the first time since the start, as it winds up in ninth. Oddly, it earned more first place votes this year than it had since season two. So, it got the quality votes but lacked in terms of quantity. Finally, House of Cards season two falls back a bit from eighth place last year to tenth for the most recent offering. Perhaps it would have performed more strongly had it been a part of the HBO brand instead of Netflix. We as a group seem to vote for those almost automatically.
The Best Television Show category is always a brutal battle for selection. A few spots on a ballot can be the difference between tenth and 15th place. Here are our next 15 favorite shows based upon voting: Parks and Recreation, The Walking Dead, Penny Dreadful, Person of Interest, Fargo, Silicon Valley, The Leftovers, Downton Abbey, Broad City, Orphan Black, Hannibal, Gravity Falls, Arrow, Modern Family, and You’re the Worst.
2015 Calvin Awards
Calvins Intro
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Album
Best Cast
Best Character
Best Director
Best Overlooked Film
Best Picture
Best Scene
Best Screenplay
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best TV Show
Best Use of Music
Breakthrough Performance
Worst Performance
Worst Picture